‘What if Shaheen’s carrying any niggle or anything?..’ – Former Pakistan legend warns team management prior to highvoltage clash against India

The concerns over the fitness of star pacer Shaheen Afridi are not something new. In both the ODI World Cup 2023 matches that the Pakistan team played, Shaheen’s form was a bother for skipper Babar Azam and Co. Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis also voiced his opinion due to his sluggish performance in the ongoing World Cup in India. In the team’s initial two matches, Shaheen managed to secure only two wickets, conceding 103 runs in the process. Waqar Younis emphasized the pivotal role of Shaheen in Pakistan’s success, particularly in consistently taking early wickets. He urged the team management to investigate and identify the reasons behind Shaheen’s current struggles.

“Pakistan’s success has come when Shaheen really picks up early wickets and over the years, he’s done it many times and, uh, and he’s got capacity, capability, but at the moment he’s trying too hard. He’s just falling all over the place, you know, bowling on the pads, outside the off stump he’s tried around the wicket over the wicket, nothing really worked for him, and I’m sure he will even sit back with Morne Morkel,” Waqar said on Star Sports.

Ahead of Pakistan’s clash with India, Waqar believes that the team will heavily rely on Shaheen’s performance. Despite concerns, Pakistan has a perfect record, winning both of their initial two games. Pakistan even went on to achieve the highest successful World Cup chase in their recent match against Sri Lanka.

“And they’ll probably work out what is going wrong. I think there might be, uh, some action problem. What if he’s carrying any niggle or anything? If he can fix this issue and with that left arm ball coming in, you know, early doors, You know, against India, we’ll be needing his services at the most because he has done it, uh, against India a few matches previously,” he added.

India set to play against Pakistan 

Both India and Pakistan will step into the highly anticipated clash on Saturday. With unblemished records in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023, it will be interesting to see how the match pans out. Consequently, one team’s winning streak will be halted in Ahmedabad. India maintains a dominant position in their head-to-head ODI World Cup encounters against Pakistan. Team India have emerged victorious in all seven previous meetings in the prestigious tournament.

The recent clashes between India and Pakistan occurred twice last month in the Asia Cup. The first match in Pallekele ended in a washout after just one innings, while the second encounter in Colombo witnessed India securing a comprehensive victory with a massive 228-run margin. Notably, Pakistan is yet to secure a victory against India in the history of 50-over World Cups, losing in all seven encounters between the teams in this tournament.